January 26, 2017 — “A lot of crypto-currency proponents say that blockchains are going to save the planet. Well, I just can’t see it.”

This is not the resounding endorsement you might expect from widely acknowledged blockchain expert Michael Mainelli for the technology most famously associated with the internet-based currency known as Bitcoin.

Director of the London-based commercial think tank and venture firm Z/Yen, Mainelli says that the use of blockchains for crypto-currencies is limited because such application tends to be slow and energy-hungry. At the same time, he sees blockchains ho